My chapter is looking for some ideas for great philanthropy events. We are on a pretty small campus, less than 1,500 people.

So far this year, we have done:
-- Blue Out Game - Everyone wore blue to the football game. We sold wishes for $1 and tied them to balloons and released the balloons at halftime. We also had a raffle for baskets full of prizes.
-- Jailathon - Greek presidents, RD's, RA's, Professors, and the President agreed to participate. We had boxes with their names on it and for each dollar it was 1 minute in jail, up to 60 minutes, then every $5 after that it was another minute in jail. We had the Public Safety officers 'arrest' them, and we set up a jail in the bistro/cafeteria area so these people would be on display in jail.

I want to know what you've done that was successful, and what you've done that flopped and why. We are looking for some new ideas. Other groups on campus have done kickball tournaments, tye dye parties, and "sales" where they auction themselves off to the highest bidder for 24 hours.

At my school, our Chi Omega chapter puts on a lot of great philanthropy events. One of their more popular events is Swish for Wishes which is basically a 3v3 basketball tournament... I think there was a $5 registration fee per player and then they also have a 50/50 raffle. This year I think they raised a lot of money.

Dance and lipsync competitions are always popular and well-attended. You can also make a lot of money for your philanthropy by hosting a dinner, getting all the food donated, and having each chapter donate their chapter dinner money to come eat. Find a volunteer with DJ equipment to play music.

I'd suggest you nix future balloon releases for environmental reasons. Those balloons eventually land and become trash and/or wild animals try to eat them, choke, and die. Not really the wish you had in mind when you released those balloons.

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adpiucf I know that people grumble about having to do greek week on our campus, so I am not sure how a dance and lipsync competition would go. Dinners are a great idea, but I know the ZTA on campus has a spaghetti dinner. We could do a cookout or something though

I wasn't even a new member when the blue out game happened, but I do plan on mentioning that this year, because I thought about that when they released the balloons too.